Thursday, 27 December 2012

On Monday, this blog reported on the publication, on the website of the European Union's Official Journal, of the EU's trade agreement with Peru and Colombia. The post commented on its vast length at 2,605 pages. Well, that massive pagination has already been exceeded. The EU's Official has now also published the full text of the Agreement establishing an Association between the European Union and its Member States, on the one hand, and Central America on the other -- and that's 2,618 pages long, not counting a further two and a half page Protocol on Cultural Cooperation. Again, it contains plenty of references to intellectual property rights and geographical indications.

What country is "Central America", you may be wondering. Well, it is defined for the purposes of the Agreement as the Republics of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama -- but not Belize -- and naturally not Mexico since that country migrated from Central America to North America, but that's another story.

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

The most recent issue of the Trademark Reporter (that's November-December, 2012 Vol. 102 No. 6), published by the International Trademark Associaton (INTA) for its members, contains an article of great relevance to one of Latin America's most active and vibrant economies. "Trademarks and Due Diligence for Mergers and Acquisitions in Brazil", by Paula Mena Barreto Pinheiro, addresses the most important issues involved in due diligence specifically involving trade marks, as well as certain country-specific considerations that should be taken into account whenever acquiring or merging with a company in Brazil. Given the amount of corporate and transactional activity that can be expected in Brazil in the run-up to the major international sporting events Brazil is hosting in the next few years, this article may be subjected to a good deal of attention.

Monday, 24 December 2012

If you are desperately looking for some reading material this Christmas, look no further than the Trade Agreement between the European Union and its Member States, of the one part, and Colombia and Peru, of the other part, the text of which has just been posted on the website of the Official Journal of the European Union. Inclusive of Annexes and declarations, it's a mere 2,605 pages long.

The term "intellectual property" appears 45 times, but that's not as many times as "geographic indications", which are mentioned 65 times. In contrast, "patent" gets 19 plugs and "copyright" just 17.

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

The Brazilian Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial (INPI) reports the official visit to France of Mrs Dilma Rousseff, President of Brazil. The Brazilian President handed to her French counterpart, President François Hollande, the Certificate of Designation of Origin (DO) for sparkling wines produced in the Champagne region.
The document was issued the 11th of December by INPI’s President, Jorge Ávila. It is said that the certificate was the result of 5 years co-operation between INPI France and INPI Brazil as well as the Committee Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC).
The French President said that this recognition 'was an honour for the French ' and acknowledged Brazil’s improvement in relation to the protection of geographical indication (GI).

Moreover, the director of INPI France encouraged French producers to obtain legal protection of their GI in Brazil stating that the two offices are “highly engaged in the development of cooperation between the two countries to boost growth and mutual respect of interests”. On the other hand, INPI’s Brazil president said that the Brazilian cultural diversity has “immense potential of geographical indications and designations of origin. We have worked hard to spread among domestic producers to use this system as a national economic asset”.

Monday, 17 December 2012

From Mexico comes the news that an electoral counselor, Blanca Castaneyra Chavez accused her coauthor, Dominguez Gudini, of plagiarizing an article that they wrote together and was published in the magazine ‘Diurna’.
The article, entitled ‘The socioeconomic factor at the top of campaigns: cheaper elections’ published in a magazine which is edited by the Consejo General del Instituto Electoral Veracruzano (IEV) (General Council Electoral Institute of Veracruz), was used by Dominguez Gudini to be published in a compendium of electoral law procedure of the Ministry of Interior.

Mr Dominguez has apologized and explained the following: I was “invited by the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a publication ... in no time I claim that experience like mine, it's like someone writing on constitutional law and says he wrote the constitution. As a matter of a personal nature I do not like to quote myself”.

For the compendium the title was changed to: ‘Governor’s funding and control of campaigns, the Veracruz experience’. The text was attributed to only Mr Dominguez.

Castaneyra Chavez lamented the fact and said she will proceed legally against Mr Dominguez. She explains that the material which was published in the magazine Diurna was owned by IEV and that Mr Dominguez should have cited the source of the text used and should have given credit to the co-author.

Well, I guess this is not the first time this type of issue happens – not that they are normal! What captures my attention is Mr Dominguez statement that he does not like to quote himself…what about given the credit to his co-author then?
The info comes from the newspaper ‘El Universal’ and so, there is not much detail of the grounds of the to-be case. We could speculate that it will be IEV the one that brings the proceedings, as the owner of the publication; and the author could bring also proceeding but in that case would be under moral rights ie paternity rights.